Christmas is coming and How to Eat is chewing over a mince pie.

But hot or cold? Brandy butter or cream? And does it matter which hand you eat it with?

In 1733, the Gentleman’s Magazine carried a short reflection on mince pies – née Christmas pyes – that, among other observations, noted how puritanical Quakers swerved them on the basis that they are an “invention of the Scarlet Whore of Babylon, an Hodge-Podge of Superstition, Popery, the Devil and all his Works”.

Sounds exciting, right?

But, in 2018, the mince pie, lacks that transgressive edge.

We may buy a staggering 370m every Christmas but we also throw a shameful 74m away, indicative of how innocuous they now are.

Any tingle of forgive-me-father-for-I-have-wolfed-four excitement has gone.

Mince pies are mundane. We take them for granted.

Part of the problem is that most shop-bought mince pies are clumsily spiced, collapsing air-pockets of disappointment.

But this is a treat of diminishing returns for other reasons, too.

We routinely abuse the mince pie. We fail to treat it with reverence.

Which is why it is best to read on and learn how best to eat one of Britain’s favourite dishes.